Ok I'm not movie buff, so I rarely watch any movies, and even when I do I just accept what I watch no matter how bad it is. I'm more interested in the story content of a movie, but I digress. My assignment was to analyze two major motion pictures and pick one shot sequence that is an example of good special effects as well as one that is an example of bad special effect.
First movie was Ultraviolet, an action packed movie based off a comic series. Seeing as it is a "superhero" movie its relies heavilly on its special effects. Some of them pretty bad and other ones pretty stunning. However, the special effect that caught my eye is like something most people over looked or didn't really care much about. It was subtle change of wardrobe color. These scenes are sprinkled through out the movie. One minute Violet's wearing a pure white outfit next minute she's wearing blood red. Something like this is subtle and in my opinion is a nice touch of special effects.
Now is it believable in context to the film's world? Despite being subtle, it is believable. The movie's setting is modern-ish with a futuristic flare so the " phasing color " wardrobe, the bracelets that produce endless ammunition and weapons, right down to the container housing a child who is literally a bio weapon.
Now the effect of phasing the colors is subtle and is likely something people would overlook, so I believe it neither adds or detracts to the movie's story, theme, or characterization. Maybe that one scene where her outfit phases from white to red holds some effect to the Violet's characterization.
Was this Effect Essential? Now I've never read the comic , but if they had this "phasing" or "shifting" of color in it then it might of been essential just for the canon of the story. Otherwise its just something there to look interesting.
As I've mentioned before I believe the effect is subtle, its something that stands out on it own but it stands out just enough among the other elements.
Now we move on to the bad. Jumanji.
Now Jumanji wasn't bad movie. I personally liked it as a child, hell even wanted to buy the board game . However, the movie has an abundance of special effect that could use abit of remastering or in my opinion some rethinking. The scenes I'm talking about more specifically are the scenes where the cg animals are on screen. The stampede I can understand becuase who wants a bunch of of wild animals charging through city streets. The least they could do is polish up the cg to make it realistic. However thats just something small. No the largest sore thumb in this movie would be the scene where the monkeys are tearing up the kitchen. These are cg monkey and you can tell they aren't real either. This scene could have just used a trained monkey to make a mess.
Now it is believable in the context of the film's world, but honestly in context to the viewers perception its just horrid.
The Animal CG effects add to the movie's theme and story , because face the facts, just imagine watching Jumanji without the cg animals. It would be really awkward seeing Robin Williams running away from a stampede that isn't there, or see a tomato or knife flung for no reason at all. Even though they look horrid the cg is necessary to show the viewers that this board game is bringing the savannah and the jungle to the city, so yes it was essential, even though it could of been better.
The effects were definately grandiose, they stuck out in the movie and it was essential that it would do that so that, like I said, shows that the board game is bringing the savannah and the jungle to the city.
No comments:
Post a Comment